UKRAINIAN WORLD IN WARSAW

12 June 2015

In the heart of the city, an aid and culture centre ‘Ukrainian World’ has been functioning for more than a year. Thanks to volunteers and donors, we were able to help dozens of refugees who arrived in Poland - with searching for jobs, apartments and through the provision of psychological support. We have also helped integrate the Ukrainian diaspora with Poles who are open to dialogue, by inviting them to a series of cultural events, namely: concerts, meetings and discussions. However, we now need help so that Ukrainian World may continue to exist!

Ukrainian World is an aid platform for refugees from the east of Ukraine, run by the Open Dialog Foundation in partnership with the Euromaidan Warsaw and has been functioning since April 2014.

Thanks to the on-site work of a team of volunteers, lawyers and psychologists, consultations are offered to refugees, through which we assist them in finding jobs, accommodation, educational institutions or schools for their children, as well as regards the legalisation and formalisation of their stay. Additionally, we provide psychological and legal help and offer Polish language courses. Every day, we are addressed by individuals who wish to support Ukrainians in any way they can. Our centre supports such initiatives and assists in their implementation.

Besides, Ukrainian World is a cultural centre - it is a Ukrainian heart, beating in the very centre of Warsaw. An official branch of the Maidan Library functions there; it is also a place where you can admire permanent exhibitions: the Museum of Maidan, Putin’s Cage and Yanukovych's Cabinet. We also hold temporary exhibitions of photographs, graphics and images related to the issue of the crisis in Ukraine. Thanks to our cooperation with the Smolna Association, Chopin concerts are held every evening. We have also helped to found three unique places of remembrance, dedicated to the poet Taras Shevchenko, victims of the Maidan - Heavenly Hundred, and soldiers, killed during the ATO.

In operation for over a year, Ukrainian World has also become an intercultural venue for the joint activities of Poles, Ukrainians and representatives of other national minorities. We have organised dozens of meetings, concerts, exhibition openings, book promotions, debates and integration evenings. Together, we watched the Europa League Final, in which the Ukrainian team Dnipro played; met for evenings of movies and songs; practiced dances and combat Hopak – a popular Ukrainian martial art.

We were visited, among others, by renowned journalists and members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Serhiy Leshchenko and Mustafa Nayem, MP Vitaliy Kupriy, oppositionists from Kazakhstan and Russia Muratbek Ketebayev and Nicolay Koblyakov, the leaders of the Maidan Self-Defence Andriy Parubiy and Volodymyr Parasiuk, ‘voices of Maidan’, namely: singer Ruslana Lyzhychko and cultural activist Yevhen Nyschuk, the leader of the Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev, and many others.

Ukrainian World teems with life and every event brings together dozens of participants. All this is thanks to a group of irreplaceable volunteers - Poles and Ukrainians - for whom our centre, with its family atmosphere, opportunities for assistance and participation in interesting events has become a second home for many. We believe that we significantly contribute not only to the material and psychological support of Ukrainians, but that we are also fostering an international dialogue based on empathy and understanding, we break stereotypes and promote culture. Bringing together young people of both nationalities constitutes a unique trait of Ukrainian World.

Unfortunately, due to its current financial difficulties, Ukrainian World is facing a grave threat of closure. Thanks to the Municipality of the City of Warsaw and the Śródmieście District, the premises are let free of charge, but the centre’s activities cost over 10,000 PLN every month. It is important to us that persons fleeing Ukraine due to war do not lose access the necessary assistance that we Poles offer.

We appeal for help in saving Ukrainian World! Only with your financial help will we be able to maintain (and develop) this great place. Donations can be made via the form on our website: http://odfoundation.eu/uratujus, or transferred directly to the account of the Open Dialog Foundation, along with the description ‘Save US’: 18 2490 0005 0000 4600 6090 6887

We encourage you to view our photo gallery, presenting, sectionally, the activities of Ukrainian World:

The Open Dialog Foundation was established in Poland, in 2009, on the initiative of Lyudmyla Kozlovska (who is currently the President of the Foundation). The statutory objectives of the Foundation include protection of human rights, democracy and rule of law in the post-Soviet area. Particular attention of the Foundation is focused on the region’s largest countries: Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.

The Foundation pursues its goals through the organisation of observation missions, including election observation and monitoring of the human rights situation in the post-Soviet area. Based on these activities, the Foundation creates its reports and distributes them among the institutions of the EU, the OSCE and other international organisations, foreign ministries and parliaments of EU countries, analytical centres and media.

In addition to observational and analytical activities, the Foundation is actively engaged in cooperation with members of parliaments involved in foreign affairs, human rights and relationships with the post-Soviet countries, in order to support the process of democratisation and liberalisation of their internal policies. Significant areas of the Foundation's activities also include support programmes for political prisoners and refugees.

The Foundation has its permanent representative offices in Warsaw, Kiev and Brussels.